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Mysterious might make the back end of the all-Walker rotation, after Bill, Taijuan, Luke. There's also a Clifford Walker Lee, but he's an outfielder from the 1920s. The Walkers have position players to burn.

I'm'a give those Australia games a miss, but then I give most TV baseball a miss. I have expressed my indifference to them (partly because I'm an AL West fan) but if I were living in Sydney right now I would think this was the greatest thing that happened in human history :)

Less than 24 hours to go until "Opening Day"; a game that nobody in America is even going to watch. Stupid doesn't even begin to describe these games or the idea behind them.

I've said this before, but my kids caught the baseball bug last year after going to a game at Dodger Stadium. They can't wait to go back, so in that sense, I get why they are doing these games. When my kids don't take over the TV (and my 5 year old knows his favorite channels now), baseball is pretty much on TV all the time once the season starts. Heck, it's been on alot in the last couple of weeks with all the awesome spring training coverage on MLBN. But that game is what got my kids hooked.

That said, it's absolutely horrible that if I decided to stay up until 1am tonight (not happening, we have baseball practice at 9am tomorrow) that I can't watch the Dodgers because the new Dodgers channel isn't on my cable yet.

The Cubs have dealt (Trevor) Gretzky to the Angels for (Matt) Scioscia.

Yes, both are sons of the more famous Wayne and Mike...

It's actually a pretty lopsided, poor trade for the Cubs near as I can tell... Matt is 25, hasn't made it out of A ball, and is almost certainly nothing but org fodder. Gretzky isn't a premier prospect -- but was a 7th rounder who was convinced away from SDSU with a $375k bonus. He hasn't made it out of A ball either - and doesn't look to have the bat to be a legit 1B, but he is still just 21.

It's likely a nothing deal for both teams, I guess... but odd that the Angels would trade Mike's son, while the Cubs would actually give up a something more than org fodder to get him.

I always pay attention to deals where a team deals for or trades away (moreso the latter) a manager or exec's kid.
Not sure why the Cubs did this. Scioscia, to be blunt, has never given an indication that he's a pro caliber ballplayer. Gretzky's likely no prospect but, still...

11 - 13: AZ Phil at The Cub Reporter, who is quite in touch with Cubs minor league system, thinks the plan is to flip Scioscia back to catcher, as it's the only place in the organization where the team lacks minor league depth. Gretzky was utterly and thoroughly blocked at 1B and OF going forward with the Cubs.

11 - 13: AZ Phil at The Cub Reporter, who is quite in touch with Cubs minor league system, thinks the plan is to flip Scioscia back to catcher, as it's the only place in the organization where the team lacks minor league depth. Gretzky was utterly and thoroughly blocked at 1B and OF going forward with the Cubs.

The guys the Cubs were running out at catcher at AAA and AA were an absolute joke last year. I mean, you're not going to have prospects - or even oldish guys who might have a backup major league role - at every level, but the Cubs were using 33 yo JD Boscan as the starting catcher at Iowa and Tennessee was playing a couple of 27/28 yos who weren't very good either.

Of course, if Scioscia's bat as 1B can't get him past A ball - not so sure moving him solves that issue...

But the biggest weakness the Cubs system has right now is catching, and catching that might potentially even have a future in strict backup role.

Anything that they can do to import some help there, and help at an age at least youngish enough to maybe have a future if things break right, is probably a good move.

The guy's played only 7 games at C in the minors, this doesn't sound like much of a plan. Maybe the Cubs got some cash in the deal, enough to cover Gretzky's bonus?

Is Scioscia hurt a lot? Not only is he 25 in A ball, he has 2+ seasons in the minors and hasn't made it to 500 PA. And his OPS was 472 last year. Seriously, what's going on here?

If they got some of the cash back and this is just a favor to a young player, then fine. And really, who cares? But you would seem to have to do some work to find a less promising pro ballplayer than Scioscia.